The 10 Strictest (and 10 Most Lenient) College AI Policies
We scored all 174 universities across permission, disclosure, and enforcement to produce a single strictness ranking. Here are the schools at each extreme.
Key Numbers
The 10 strictest
These schools have the highest composite strictness scores in our database.
| # | School | L | D | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brigham Young University | L4 | D3 | E2 |
| 2 | Georgetown University | L4 | D3 | E2 |
| 3 | Brown University | L4 | D3 | E1 |
| 4 | Harvard University | L4 | D3 | E1 |
| 5 | Southern Methodist University | L4 | D3 | E1 |
| 6 | North Carolina State University | L3 | D3 | E1 |
| 7 | William & Mary | L3 | D3 | E1 |
| 8 | Johns Hopkins University | L3 | D3 | E0 |
| 9 | Wesleyan University | L4 | D0 | E2 |
| 10 | Swarthmore College | L3 | D2 | E1 |
The 10 most lenient
Among schools that have an AI policy, these are the most permissive. Schools with no policy (L0/D0/E0) are excluded — silence is not the same as permission.
| # | School | L | D | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | University of Southern California | L0 | D0 | E1 |
| 2 | Princeton University | L0 | D0 | E1 |
| 3 | Gonzaga University | L0 | D0 | E1 |
| 4 | Carleton College | L0 | D1 | E0 |
| 5 | University of Maryland-College Park | L0 | D0 | E2 |
| 6 | University of Wisconsin-Madison | L1 | D0 | E0 |
| 7 | Duke University | L1 | D0 | E0 |
| 8 | Vanderbilt University | L2 | D0 | E0 |
| 9 | University of Georgia | L2 | D0 | E0 |
| 10 | University of Connecticut | L2 | D0 | E0 |
What separates the top from the bottom
The gap between the strictest and most lenient schools is driven almost entirely by permission level. Every school in the top 10 is L3 or L4 — they either limit AI to brainstorming or ban it outright. The most lenient schools are L1 (AI permitted with guidance) or L2 (line-level editing allowed).
Disclosure and enforcement act as multipliers. A school at L4/D3/E3 (full ban, attestation required, verified) is meaningfully stricter than one at L4/D0/E0 (full ban, but no disclosure and no check). Both tell you not to use AI — only one has mechanisms to back it up.
The silent middle
117 schools — 67% of our database — score zero because they have no AI admissions policy at all. These schools don't appear in either ranking. Having no policy is a distinct category: it's neither strict nor lenient, it's absent.
If you're applying to a school that scores zero, you have no institutional guidance to follow. That may feel like freedom, but it also means no protection if standards change mid-cycle.
A note on program-level policies
These rankings use institution-level classifications only. Many schools have program-specific policies that differ — sometimes dramatically — from the school-wide stance. A university ranked as lenient overall may have an individual program that bans AI entirely.
Always check the individual school page for program-level details before making decisions about your application.
Methodology
Rankings are based on a weighted composite of all three L/D/E dimensions: Permission (60%), Disclosure (25%), and Enforcement (15%). Permission is weighted highest because it directly determines what applicants can and cannot do. Schools with no policy (L0/D0/E0) are excluded from the lenient list. See our full methodology for classification details.